Abstract
Gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) have attracted attention as a promising sensitizer owing to their high atomic number (Z), and because they are considered fully multifunctional, they are preferred over other metal nanoparticles. Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has also recently gained attention, especially for cancer treatment, by inducing apoptosis through the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, the activity of different sized Au-NPs with helium-based CAP (He-CAP) was analyzed, and the underlying mechanism was investigated. Treating cells with only small Au-NPs (2 nm) significantly enhanced He-CAP-induced apoptosis. In comparison, 40 nm and 100 nm Au-NPs failed to enhance cell death. Mechanistically, the synergistic enhancement was due to 2 nm Au-NPs-induced decrease in intracellular glutathione, which led to the generation of intracellular ROS. He-CAP markedly induced ROS generation in an aqueous medium; however, treatment with He-CAP alone did not induce intracellular ROS formation. In contrast, the combined treatment significantly enhanced the intracellular formation of superoxide (O2• −) and hydroxyl radical (•OH). These findings indicate the potential therapeutic use of Au-NPs in combination with CAP and further clarify the role of Au-NPs in He-CAP-aided therapies.
Highlights
Nanotechnology has gained tremendous attention because of its application in cancer therapy[1]
Membrane changes indicative of apoptosis or necrosis of the U937 cells were evaluated by determining the uptake of annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)/Propidium iodide (PI) double staining
The combined treatment induced a marked decrease in pERK1/2 expression at 1 h, which was slightly recovered 3 h later but remained lower than that of the cells treated with He-Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) or Au-NPs alone. phosphorylation states of JNK (pJNK) expression increased in both the helium-based CAP (He-CAP) alone and combined groups at 1 h, with no significant difference between these two groups
Summary
Nanotechnology has gained tremendous attention because of its application in cancer therapy[1]. After Au-NPs and He-CAP treatments, the treated cells were incubated at 37 °C for 18 h, collected, washed with PBS, and centrifuged at 1200 rpm for 3 min. The DNA fragmentation was slightly increased in the cells He-CAP treatment alone, reaching up to 40.0 ± 5.0% in the presence of the Au-NPs (2 nm) (Fig. 1b).
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